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I came across this sentence today (from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puZj7spIvFE&t=213s, time: 3:25)
コーヒーが好きで始めた仕事ではなく、お客様と接する仕事ということ
I didn't get into the coffee business for coffee, I just wanted to connect with customers
Why would you use で after コーヒーが好き, if the following verb is 始める, which is volitional (you start something)?
Or is my understanding of で in this sentence incorrect?
This で is for denoting a reason and interchangeable with だから.
コーヒーが好きで始めた仕事ではなく、...
= コーヒーが好きだから始めた仕事ではなく、...This is not a business I started because I liked coffee, but...
始めた is just an action, and does not contain any volition/intention by itself. You can safely use it as the "second" sentence after て/で for reason. 始めましょう/始めよう/始めてください/始めろ does contain volition/intention. So コーヒーが好きでカフェを始めよう is ungrammatical, but saying コーヒーが好きでカフェを始めました is perfectly fine.
